Agra: A local court here rejected the bail pleas of two accused in the murder of 23-year-old researcher Neha Sharma, who was found dead in a laboratory of a private college here on March 15.

Additional Sessions Judge, Ashish Garg dismissed the bail pleas of accused Uday Swarup and Yashveer Sandhu yesterday, on the grounds that the crime was of a serious nature and did not warrant bail.

Defence lawyers Achal Sharma and Abhay Pathak argued that even after 48 hours of remand, the police was not able to produce any eyewitness in the case and was relying on some samples of hair stained with blood, found in the laboratory, allegedly matched with those of Uday.

The prosecution counsel, Ashok Kumar Gupta produced a statement before the court made on July 12 by one Rohit Yadav, in which Yadav claimed to have seen the two accused attacking Neha in the laboratory on the fateful day.

Yadav claimed to have been close to the victim`s family and ran errands for Neha in the absence of her parents, the prosecution added.

According to the statement made by Yadav, on March 15, he needed Neha`s car for some urgent work for which he went to meet her at the laboratory.

Upon reaching the lab, Yadav heard cries from the room which was locked from inside and on pushing the door open he allegedly found Uday and Yashveer attacking Neha, the statement said.

Yadav managed to escape from the scene, Gupta said adding that he made the statement under Section 161 in Code Of Criminal Procedure (Examination of witnesses by police).